<p>A few strokes of a keyboard will now guide Florida State University students to a world of multi-processors that will enable them to do broader research.</p>
<p>At least that's the plan behind unveiling the new high-performance computing cluster from computer maker Dell Inc.</p>
<p>Dell won out a bid over several other companies to supply Florida State's data facility with the high-performance system. The system will be housed at Innovation Park.</p>
<p>"This will enable students to do newer and better things," said Max Gunzburger, director of the School of Computational Science.</p>
<p>The university received the $2 million system at a greatly reduced cost. Dell's John Mullen, vice president, general manager of higher education, said it's the first time the FSU/Dell relationship has branched off in a significant way for the research community.</p>
<p>"Florida State is a wonderful example of a university using the latest in technology to conduct leading-edge research," Mullen said in a press release. "High-performance computing is enabling research that benefits society, and the work that FSU researchers are conducting will accrue benefits for society for years to come."</p>
<p>The computing system will be available to students today. According to Jim Wilgenbusch, associate director for computing at FSU's School of Computational Science, that means students will have more than one computer processor at their fingertips. Wilgenbusch said students can use the short time they have available for research to access the 25 to 520 processors that allow them to do much larger jobs in shorter time spans.</p>